AAARGH!!!!! CHICKEN POPS

Pretty much most of this month has been putting my life on hold because my darling babies got "CHICKEN POPS" as Turirangi says. Lily was the first scratching her head and I thought KUTU. And then the rash and then the all over body hakihaki. Poor baby. She did her week and a half at home. I was hoping Turirangi would get it too. We bathed them together, but no Turi was immune. Lily went back to Puna and Turi was healthy as. It ws a Friday so sweet no Kura for me. Heaps to catch up on though.

I have to admit I was totally lost and didnt know where to start to catch up. That afternoon I picked the babies up from Puna and Turirangi reckoned he had Kutu in his hair and so I had a quick look. "Na you are sweet son", no KUTU.

Hmmmmmm,
I lifted up his shirt and there they were. The bloody CHICKEN POPS. Another week and a half of calamine and itchy nights. AAAARGH!!!!! Man it taught me a big lesson. My poor babies. People were looking at us in the mall. I felt aroha for them. They were really sick. The kaiako at Puna said they were the worst cases of Chicken Pox she has seen at her Puna in 10 years. I did a bit of net surfing and heard about other peoples chicken pox experiences and found out that it is better to get them as a child because it can be life threatening to get them later in adulthood, and it is worse for men. SO May was AAAARGH!!!!CHICKEN POX

WORKPLACEMENT @TVNZ AVIDS 13-20 APRIL 2009

wow what a buzz. I was able to watch the Te Hekenga o Te Rangihouhiri being edited down for a documentary by Te Waka Huia. The director of the doco was Meihana Te Huia. The only thing was that the editng Avid hours were 3pm till midnight. It kinda messed with my body clock. everyones eyes were red as coming outta there at midnight from staring at the screen all night. Sonia was great and gave me some really great tips on editing. It was kewl to watch my own iwi doco being made and I even got to have some tiny little suggestions in there like placement of photos and I got to get some extra footage of my MUM in there. I didnt get to go on the heke but it was like being there all the same in the avids. Some old piks of my koroua and kuia from 20 years ago was being inserted into picture montages. Nearly made me have a tangi to see my whanau, kua wehe ki te po te nuinga o ratou.

Doco screening is on the 7 July I think and my name will scroll on the list of credits second to last. The director asked if I was ok with him putting my name on it.

Meihana also gave me his notes on a directing documentary seminar that he attended. Gr8 stuff, I hope that I can ge faster at editing. One of the directors that I met there is going to give me another work placement in the next break and let me have a go at editing in the TVNZ avids. Im really excited but I know I have to get a bit more knowledge savvy first so that I dont look like a dumb dik when I get there.

Matatini 2009 champs Te Waka Huia

2009 Matatini Champions Te Waka Huia brought the spoils of their victory to MIT marae today. It was a great day to be part of such an honourable kaupapa. Pounamu is the Performing arts paper that is run at MIT and Te Waka Huia are the ones who run it. Every day we are privilledged to hear thebeautiful manu tioriori singing next door to usin the computer labs. Often I hear myself humming along. (refer Waldo Houia blog about my singing skills NOT!!!) The dedication these performers display is awesome. I could feel the mana the roopu had for their art. Te Karere did a story on it. It was hardcase to see the camera man cruising around getting his camera angles sussed. I asked him if he felt nervous when he first started because sometimes to get the shot he would be close up and looked to be in the way but Te Waka Huia were true pros and were sweet as about letting him be there because they knew his work complimented the story. Me I still try not to be too conspicuous . He reckons that to be a good camera person you have to be in a certain place sometimes to get the right shot and it just takes practice to do that with style.

These are some of my favourite shots from the shoot. Maria is a tauira in the Maori Media course and this is her favourite taonga. I think I coulda put the back taonga towards the center more.

MAORI TELEVISION SERVICE & KIWA FILMS 2-04-09

MTS 2-04-09

Maori Television Service was a buzz to visit. We got to have a look at the eqipment there and get a guided tour fron the lovely Stacey Garland. Thanx heaps Stacey! The main thing I ghot outta toaday was that the tecnical guy said if you want to start having a go on the tecnology side of media a good place to start is to learn the workings of your home theatre system at its full potential ie. how to set the video timer to record a show you want to watch and all the functions that todays record equipment has to offer. He had a point. When I got home I found that I really wasnt using the technology to its max. Now I am the mean as tutu at home. Ka aroha whanau.

Keith is the mean as presenter, He had us in fits of laughter here. Taunaha looks great on camera too. We are in the studio here where Te Kaea is presented. The bsckground is actually green and the background image is digitally enhanced. I wonder if I could trick the technology to help with my radio face. lol

KIWA FILMS

Neri works here and took us for a jack around their studio. She is the voice over master for
some of the Maori cartoons we watch. It is harder than it looks but shes a pro at it. We also got to have alook at some of the world innovative intiatives they are in the throes of marketing. Thay have designed a programme that puts the words of songs onto a iphone video player so you have a portable karioke to all the latest songs which you can hook uo to a home entertainment system and PRESTO INSTANT KARIOKE. It was visionary.

IT MUST BE DONE ANO!

HEMANA WAAKA
26 03 09

Same day different whara! Later on in the day another guest speaker came onto the marae. Hemana is one of the foundation leaders for Te Waka Huia. He came to share his experiences about making docos and the progress of te reo in Aotearoa in Media. A little different from Waldo as he was focussed on education. Waldo is now tangata whenua and it is Rangimarie to lead Hemana onto the marae. She was too much! Lovely karanga. It was great to see these two masters of the reo have a bit of a catch up in the whaikorero. Heaps of katakata. After a while it was if we werent even there and they reverted to their own hohonu style of korero. Hemana said "kare kau he puru Kotuku" because Mana Wahine hard!!!! He noticed that we were all wahine. Waldo replied the hua of this roopu will determine the skill of the kaiako, KT. Only those hohonu fullas can get away with that type of korero and they both know KT well. They were having a blast trying to think up clever little coded ditties that only they got the real gist of. I could tell by the smiles on their faces that this was a good powhiri for them both.

POLYFEST VID CRAK UP

This is a crak up. watch and see two dedicated Maori media students at polyfest. Yeaaaah!

IT MUST BE DONE!

WALDO HOUIA

26 03 09

Papa Waldo came to tautoko the roopu today. He gave us a really great korero about his experiences in development of te reo in Aotearoa. He was the one who encouraged me to learn te reo at Waikato. It changed my life. So now on occasions like powhiri, yep, I MUST do the karanga. Aue, man it makes me nervous but I do it cause it is important to him and to the adhereance to tikanga. This is my son Te Kani with him and Papa says he MUST come so that he will know what to do when it is his turn to take the rakau.

Yep here we are "you Must karanga, and he aha to wai?" So of course I have to do a Duet with him. Te Kani flat out refuses but me, "Whakarongo ki te reo Maori e karanga nei" A Ngati Porou waiata of course in front of Pounamu who comprise of the 2009 Matatini champions Te Waka Huia. Too much!!! Shame. My smile is because Kotuku has restarted the song again from the tangata whenua side and so here I am singing badly for the second time. Cher KT.

I am stoked that Papa was welcomed onto the marae by the roopu and tikanga was followed. His korero following was captivating and I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to Karanga at all let alone for Papa. Hei aha the solo, duet waiata though.